The Key to the Gate

"I think she will be fine." Dr. Cruz said, lowering the plastic flap of the oxygen tent around Ruby Rose as she slept with bandages around her neck and chest area. An IV blood bag was pumping blood into her body through her right wrist.

Yang sat beside the hospital bed, close to her younger half-sister. She was truly exhausted and emotionally drained throughout the whole ordeal. She had seen her sister's Aura break in such a short notice that it was a miracle that Ruby managed to make it at all with the bleeding and swelling on her neck. Ruby had been wheezing, struggling to breathe, and desperately ill and fading prior to rushed into Beacon's infirmary.

Yang was so furious and seeing so much red that night that she didn't give one of the bigger lizards a chance to comprehend that she shoulder tackled it with her Semblance activated. While others dealt with the smaller ones with Nora fighting the other two bigger lizards, Yang was inflicting hell, one powered punch after another upon the one lizard she tackled in spite of the significant size disparity between the two. They fought literally tooth and claw with their Auras clashing each other. The double V-crested lizard sliced back and even bit down on Yang's elbow with its crooked jaws. But Yang was pumped with so much adrenaline with her Aura on overdrive that she didn't register the pain of the creature's teeth tearing through her Aura and drawing blood from her skin being pierced by its fangs when attacked its chest. Both combatants had their Aura shattered with Yang being the first, then the lizard being next. The fight ended with the lizard having its head crests destroyed and its skull snout caved in by Yang slamming a brick onto it. Which was why Yang has her right arm wrapped around in a cast along with some bandages on her stomach where the lizard kicked her.

Blake was with her partner, faring somewhat better than either Yang or Weiss, who was the more traumatized of the conscious trio. Blake was more used to seeing her friends mauled and gored in her line of work in the White Fang. However, it didn't make the horrific experience last night any less traumatic as she was still shaken up, albeit on a lesser degree. Physically, apart from having her arm cut, she's relatively okay as she used her Shadow Clone Semblance to weave around the reptiles.

Weiss, on the other hand, almost went into a coma upon seeing the barely recognizable Ruby bloodied and swollen. She still grew up a sheltered life even when she heard countless friends and family members disappearing due to the constant attacks on the Schnee Dust Company by the White Fang. Thus, she had no inkling how grisly and bloody the realities would be outside the comfort of her mansion. It had been like that in Beacon Academy too where the emphasis was on extermination of ththe Grimm. Not so much on other living things or humanoids. Not many of the students had the experience of seeing blood spilt, much less in their own backyard of the Academy.

Until last night...

It had been a bloody nightmare where a student nearly lost her life to a pack of unknown reptilian predators.

And the worst part, they were still out there. Probably hiding somewhere in the darkest corners of Beacon Academy's grounds with the possibility that there might be more of them out in the wilderness.

Weiss and others with weaker compositions had suffered from night terrors. They couldn't sleep at all while most slept through the morning. Classes were canceled indefinitely until further notice. The heiress's eyes were bloodshot with her mood sullen.

"Will Ruby be alright after the hell she had been put through?" Blake inquired, staring through the plastic oxygen tent.

"I believe so," Dr. Cruz answered. "I've given her some steroids to help enhance her immune system. Her breathing is much easier and the swelling on her chest and hand is reduced. Her Aura should kick in some time during the afternoon to further reduce it."

Yang Xiao Long asked, "About the spits..."

"We haven't been able to identify them." the doctor said, "I myself have worked with many patients inflicted by some kind of bite, scratch, cut, or spit, but nothing like these. I have taken photographs for reference. And I have washed her hand and arm to collect some samples of the sticky blob - one for analysis here, a second to send to labs in Atlas, and the third we will keep frozen in case it is needed."

"Okay." Yang nodded. She next asked about another thing that was on her mind. "What about the specimens that mauled her?" She was referring to the three dead lizards; the one she punched the living crap out of, the older, bigger one that Nora fought although it resulted in her getting spewed right in her eyes for being reckless, the second being one of the younger lizards that Port managed to subdue.

"They are a bigger mystery all in of themselves. In all honesty, I don't know what reptile they are. I heard that the Headmaster has been trying to call Dr. Guitierrez since last night. He is a senior researcher at the Saotura Biological Reserve at the border between Vale and Vacuo. He's the best person who might have a better idea of what we're dealing with here. I heard though that he's been busy with many incident cases like this one."

The blonde buxom Huntress smacked her face, gritting her teeth, "Damnit...I hate it when I don't have a clue what the hell are these lizards that mauled my sister."

"I doubt you're the only one who's frustrated about this as I am." Dr. Cruz frowned.

Somewhere else...

In his office built into the top of the Beacon CCT tower, Ozpin's face was that of intrigue and concern. He had seen a lot of things throughout his multiple lifetimes in his neverending struggle against Salem. However, the holo images in front of him were a whole different story altogether.

The images of the three dead predatory lizards that had mauled one of his students last night. All of them were pictures that he had taken shot of them personally at the crime scene.

Ozpin was no fool as to what these "lizards" were really were. It was why he had the thick encyclopedic book titled, "Dinosauria: Ruling Reptiles of the Mesozoic" sitting on his desk. He was flipping through pages; sections ranging from the geological formations of Remnant to the actual meat of the heavy book:

Dinosaurs.

Categorized in each of the three periods of millions of years that comprise the entire Mesozoic Era. Based on the rock formations closely associated with any of the three ancient periods of the Mesozoic, or popularly known as the Age of Dinosaurs.

Triassic, Jurassic, and the Cretaceous.

Using the features of the images for reference points, he finally found the closest match to the creatures:

Dilophosaurus.

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Clade: Dinosauria

Order: Saurischia

Suborder: Theropoda

Family: Dilophosauridae

Genus: Dilophosaurus

Species: D. wetherilli

Overview: A genus of theropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Southern Vale during the Early Jurassic, about 193 million years ago. At about 7 meters (23 ft) in length, with a weight of about 400 kilograms (880 lb), Dilophosaurus was one of the earliest large predatory dinosaurs, though it was smaller than some later theropods. It was slender and lightly built, and the skull was proportionally large, but delicate. The snout was narrow, and the upper jaw had a gap or kink below the nostril. It had a pair of longitudinal, plate-shaped crests on its skull, similar to a cassowary with two crests. The mandible was slender and delicate at the front, but deep at the back. The teeth were long, curved, thin, and compressed sideways. Those in the lower jaw were much smaller than those of the upper jaw. Most of the teeth had serrations at their front and back edges. The neck was long, and its vertebrae were hollow, and very light. The arms were powerful, with a long and slender upper arm bone. The hands had four fingers: the first was short but strong and bore a large claw, the two following fingers were longer and slenderer with smaller claws, and the fourth was vestigial. The thigh bone was massive, the feet were stout, and the toes bore large claws.

"Hmmm...interesting," Ozpin looked at the illustrations of both the skeleton and the fleshed-out reconstruction of the beast, which had more of a bluish and yellowish color palette for its scales than the greenish, red, and yellow found on these Dilophosaurus individuals in the pictures. But then, no one could really figure out what the dinosaurs may have looked like color-wise in real life since skin is not easily fossilized. So it could be the Dilophosaurs in the images had the real colors hands down in terms of accuracy compared to the illustration in the book and vice versa.

However, there were other features that could be more scrutinized by the scientific community like the presence of venom sacks and a fleshy, retractable neck frill in the Dilophosaurs that attacked Ruby. While it is true that soft tissue almost never survive the fossilization process, the bones of the actual Dilophosaurus don't support the muscle attachments necessary for these particular structures. It's not like it is impossible, but Ozpin knew that it was highly unlikely.

Those weren't the biggest gripes he had, but something about the presence of these Dilophosaurs from last night had bothered him.

"How is this possible that you creatures survived? You should have been extinct long ago." Ozpin muttered darkly as he almost couldn't believe the evidence in front of him, yet it was so. Dinosaurs seemed to have returned from the grave after eons have long passed somehow, and if there was quite a good number of them, then there's bound to be more of them; a breeding population that has not yet been discovered in the wild.

Then how come no one has reported or documented a surviving population of these dinosaurs for so long?

With that, came open the mental floodgates that other curious thoughts flew into Ozpin; some more fascinating than others, others of deeper worry. They were something like this:

How in Remnant's good name did the dinosaurs, even if I saw just only individual Dilophosaur using it, have the ability to possess their own Semblance? (You see, the Dilophosaurus that got into a tussle with Nora Valkyrie, not only did its purplish-green Aura glow brightly, especially at the mouth and crests, but the animal managed to spew out a gas that was concentrated amounts of venom, acid, and bacteria. Nora, as of right now, was under intensive care in the infirmary as she was suffering from having her nervous system paralyzed and developing small pox and a flu.)

If one dinosaur possess and has the capability to dish out its Semblance, does that mean others possesses Semblances of their own, or does it only randomly occur in one individual and not others?

If dinosaurs have Semblances, then what does it truly mean for humans and Faunus to possess Semblance?

What is a Semblance truly then?

Is it limited to beings of exceptional sapience that possess a spirit and a soul to make moral decisions? Or is it just another defense mechanism merely based on a lifeform's personality and experiences, regardless whether it is a human, Faunus, or an animal like these dinosaurs?

Are animals even aware of the cost and effect their Semblances have on the environment, themselves, and other creatures around them? Or is it merely activated out of instinct and in the blur of the moment?

Where are their nesting grounds?

How are the dinosaurs even living and/or adapting to the current ecosystems when much of their world has changed so dramatically and continuously for many eons since their extinction and absence?

Are they the reason that there have been reported decreases in Grimm encounters and sightings over the past months?

Maybe perhaps responsible for increased sightings of the so-called 'cryptids' and also therefore, and rapid rise of disturbing stories of Hunters and civilians being found harmed in areas where the Grimm no longer ruled and places thought to be safe havens?

The fossil record simply provide no evidence if the dinosaurs are capable of Aura and Semblance, the very fundamentals of modern Remnant's most dominant sapient species, except the Grimm. That was among other concerns and potential ramifications that could complicate his plans. The fact to the troubled Headmaster was that there was now a potential third player coming onto the chess game in the form of these so-called dinosaurs. Potential wild cards with too many unknown factors to them to be accurately assessed as to how much effect they have on the overall scheme of things. Or as Ozpin's paraphrasing of a certain eccentric chaotician's words on this matter would sound out:

Such unforeseen factors, no matter how big or small, would have a profound butterfly effect.

The dinosaurs' unforeseen intrusion into Beacon Academy...no, rather Remnant of itself might have sparked changes that even he might not know they're coming. That which brought him back to the confounding mystery as to how these dinosaurs now reappear for quite some time in the modern world as there were no historical records of their existence. Unless...

"Is this your handiwork, Hammond?" Ozpin muttered to himself, thinking back to the very proposal and dream that an old friend of his communicated to him some twenty years ago when he mentioned about a zoological park of sorts. Something that was unlike anything attempted before.

His ears perked up to the sound of the elevator dinging when it was now at his office. Looking up, he saw the doors parting way with a disgruntled and pissed off Qrow Branwen accompanied by a tired Glynda Goodwtich.

"I take it you saw one of these creatures that attacked your niece." Ozpin said, gesturing to the images of the dinosaurs. His nose did wrinkle a bit from the smell of alcohol coming off from his trusted agent. Though he couldn't blame the Branwen as he had just a short talk with his other niece and her teammates about what happened yesterday when he came by to visit the infirmary to see if Ruby will recover. Also he stormed into the storage facility with bloody murder on his face, practically hollering at the keeper in charge to get one of the dead Dilophosaurs out so that he could rip its teeth off. Tai getting riled up as an overprotective father was bad enough, but Qrow was no better, especially when his niece and former student almost died and he wasn't there for her.

"Yeah...to say that lizard is one ugly son of a bitch is an understatement, Oz. He has to be nastiest looking one I had the displeasure of seeing with my own eyes." Qrow spat. Glynda, for once, agreed with his crude, but good point as the crooked 'grin' of the Dilophosaurus looked evil and unsettling to say the least.

"Certainly not the most pleasant with the venom they spew out of their mouths." Ozpin commented.

"More importantly, how in the hell did they sneak past into Beacon? What were the security detail doing?! Sleeping?!" Qrow said bitterly as he was shocked to learn from Oobleck, Yang, and Glynda that the Dilophosaurs had managed to sneak into a Huntsman Academy without detection.

Ozpin pinched, rubbing his nose bridge as he answered, "I sent in Professor Port and Team CFVY to the area this morning to investigate for any clues as where the dinosaurs snuck in through."

"I wouldn't be surprised if they happened to find some dead guards and even a couple of unfortunate Hunters that were too stupid to know what literally bit them in the ass." the Branwen said darkly.

"Qrow!" Qrow was starting to sound like James Ironwood; the two don't even see eye-to-eye on many things. For Glynda, it was weirding her out that Qrow in his outburst was sounding similar to her gungho ex-boyfriend. Not to mention, he was being disrespectful to the students hurt by last night's incident, even if it was unintentional on his part, probably still reeling from seeing his younger niece in such ill-health.

"Glynda...let me handle it." Ozpin calmed her down before returning to Qrow with a serious look in his eyes. "Qrow...I don't doubt that there are casualties that have not been taken into account. As of yet, we are still counting that number, but the last thing I want is to already make the students more panicked than they already are. By the way, you storming down the hallway and across my Academy didn't help matters. You're fortunate that Glynda and I covered your back as we understand that seeing Ruby in such a state distresses you as much as it distresses us since last night." He took a sip of his coffee from his mug. "However, do something like that and Glynda won't be there for you next time should you cause a ruckus."

"Yes, uncle." Qrow said half-jokingly, drinking from his flask.

"Do I make myself clear, Qrow Branwen?"

"Crystal clear, sir. And sorry," Qrow sounded more sober as he finished drinking from his flask. "But in all seriousness, Ozpin. This is not good."

"Security will have to be enhanced after the point of breach has been found and sealed off as soon as possible." Ozpin clasped his hands together on the desk.

"Yeah, that'll definitely be top priority, but also Oz, I think it's high time we need to talk about that. I hope you have not forgotten what, or rather wo I am referring to." The veteran Huntsman's jaw became tight and clenched at the memory of InGen's CEO.

Ozpin and Glynda read enough from Qrow's changes in facial expression to know who he was talking about; the very boss and old friend that had hired Qrow to help with the dangerous asset on the island four years ago. Ozpin sighed.

"You think John has something to do with this and other recent cases that have been popping out of the wood work as of late." The Headmaster assumed correctly. Qrow had been obsessed about John Hammond and InGen four years since that day and half of the cases he pursue have been on the rising number of the dino-cryptid sightings.

"I don't think he has, Oz. I know he has to do with everything about these cases ever since he moved his InGen assets onto those group of islands that are in the middle of nowhere not unlike Menagerie." Qrow insisted for the umpteenth time to Ozpin for years with the elderly Headmaster either ignoring it or talking about it briefly and then sidelining it for more important matters.

"I have not said this out loud and only to Glynda privately, but I admit that I have grown suspicious of Hammond since you returned from that island." Oz tilted his head slightly downwards with his eyes concealed by the bright glare reflected from his glasses.

"Then why didn't you say anything about that?"

"Because he has been my friend far longer than you, Glynda, James, and Leon have. I didn't want to place any doubt on the relations that he and I enjoyed for so long when he had been the only friend to share my passion for bettering the world overall. I was foolish to not challenge it in the fear of that I was the one straining it, but that has happened anyway when I am starting to realize that he has not been totally forward with me about his science project." The Headmaster drank more coffee from the mug, probably in a similar purpose for Qrow's own drinking habits to help get over the mistake that he had made in hindsight. "Also I didn't believe his proposal could ever work. I mean, how can anyone dare to transcend the boundary between mortals and gods by resurrecting a dead, extinct species without unforeseen consequences? I never thought would John could possibly be this willing to go that far."

"Oz, it's not your fault. No one could have predicted this. Certainly not whatever else John and/or InGen had done that could have propagated the situation we are dealt with," Glynda said sympathetically to her boss, who only shook his head in disagreement.

"While that may be true, it was clear right in front of me whenever I talk to Hammond. I should have known better when I could see it in his eyes."

Ozpin drank more forcefully from his mug and then slammed it down on the desk that could echo throughout his office. He breathed heavily and next through his nose in bigger ones to clear his head.

Qrow and Glynda remained silent until Ozpin slowly, almost eerily graceful, in his motion that he stood up and looked to both of them. "Nevertheless, it's hopeless to brood on what I should have done and what I shouldn't have. I have already plenty of that time in this lifetime."

"Amen to that, Ozzy." Qrow saluted with his flask. "Amen, indeed."

"It's still not too late to hold John to accountability. In fact, in light of last night's breach, it is long overdue."

"I am inclined to agree with you on that, but there are problems with how we're going to move forward with this, now that we have established a premise for suspect of InGen's role underlining these cryptid cases without solid legal footing to stand on." Glynda pointed out, "As far as I know, the company has been laying low for most part; either they have been not exploring into other major ventures, or they have kept whatever deals they have out of the spotlight."

"Yeah...they have been covering their tracks well. Sometimes, I feel they are even shadier than the Schnee Dust Company and that's saying something." Qrow rubbed his shaved chin. "So there wasn't a lot of ground for the media to cover or anything suspicious to us that would require the Vale Council's attention. Speaking of which, how are they handling the situations like what happened here for instance?"

"The Council has officially suspended media coverage on what happened here to prevent a panic of sorts. I ordered my staff and the students here to do the same by being careful as to what to say to outsiders. The media can keep covering other cases that are more out in the wilderness along with their usual fare as long as they're skeptical. We should be fine on that front." Ozpin explained.

"Yeah, that's fine. The last thing we need is to have a premature panic attack and unwanted speculation and rumors to fly about, attracting Grimm to our doorsteps." Qrow could take relief in that.

"Yes...now going back on topic, InGen has covered their tracks well. That was until now with the dinosaur sightings and the corresponding casualties. Tell me. What is the latest news breaking on InGen?" Ozpin asked them what news they have heard on the online net.

"From what I heard, InGen is becoming swamped with lawsuits coming from some of its former employees and their families and more. Ranging from worker mistreatment, allegations of questionable laboratory practices, to creature-related murder stories." Glynda said of what she had observed and read from the Internet in her free time.

"And how are the company's investors reacting to them, if you can condense into let say, four descriptive adjectives?" Ozpin continued.

"I'd say..." Qrow held up his four fingers out, "Nervous." One finger down. "Anxious." Second one down. "Uneasy." Third out. "And...uncertain." Fourth down for the count.

"That'd be exactly how they're feeling about the company. I even heard some of them are threatening to quit and invest to some other company say like the Schnee Dust Company unless InGen does allow one thing to happen. And what's the one thing investors love to turn to when they need some assurance that things won't tank on them with their investments in InGen?"

"Inspections." Qrow worded the answer the Headmaster predicted it will come down to.

Ozpin chuckled, "Right on the money, Qrow. The investors would normally send like a representative lawyer to inspect parks, zoos, etc. And knowing how John views these inspections, he'd hate it when they slow everything down, but he wouldn't have much say or action for that when it is coming from InGen's Board of Directors that would allow such an inspection."

"In that type of scenario, I can only imagine that the investors would demand all kinds of things for the inspection to go smoothly. Are you saying what I think you're thinking?" Glynda realized what Ozpin was getting at.

"It is very likely that for John's case, whatever he's creating on those islands, the investors would likely request that groups of Huntsmen should have an opinion on the matter."

"Heh...if they want my opinion, I'd be more than happy to give both of them a piece of my mind." Qrow drank his flask again.

"That door has not opened yet, and even if it did, you need to choose your words carefully." Ozpin stated.

"Finicky much." Qrow shrugged his shoulders in a dismissive manner, "Typical."

"Do you think Hammond is aware of the incidents happening in Mistral, Vacuo, and recently here in Vale?" Glynda inquired as it was weird that InGen hardly responded to them with some kind of action at all. The elderly silver-haired man shook his head at his employee's response.

"It's hard to say. Personally, I don't think he is, and it is more of the Board of Directors that is so. But then again, it could be the other way around." Ozpin finished his mug of coffee. "Regardless, we have to keep an eye out on the situation as it develops. If Hammond or any of the investors do request our presence and opinion, we have to be prepared for that eventuality. In the meantime, we have to handle our own matters here."

"Agreed. I've been keeping track of the team sent in to investigate for clues from last night. So far, from what I heard, they collected some biological samples, but have not yet found the breach point. The temporary lockdown is in effect until we have confirmation that the area is clear. As of this moment, the teachers are basically on paid leave, despite being in the Academy." Glynda stated the progress of Beacon's situation.

"It should do. I hope this crisis more or less gets resolved before the week is over." Ozpin nodded. "We'll cross the bridge of slowly freeing up the curriculum when we can reach the point that there is no more infestation."

"Understood." Glynda took out her Scroll when she heard a notification jingle and turned the screen back on. It showed a rather agitated, angry, and worried Taiyang along with the family's Pembroke Welsh Corgi pet, Zwei, waiting on a bench near the front office. She sighed and said, "If you excuse me, looks like Yang and Ruby's father is here probably to visit his girls after what happened." The woman got up and left for the elevator.

"Probably figured that I tipped Tai onto what happened to little Red." Qrow chuckled humorlessly as he briefly joked on Tai's initial reaction to the news that Ruby had been severely hurt, almost dead. "You should have heard him flip a table."

"Qrow."

"Alright, alright. I drop it. I was just trying to lighten up the situation for once." Qrow was shaking his head with a sheepish smirk that quickly vanished when he went back to his more serious persona.

"Bad choice of timing. Enough of that, Qrow." Ozpin said with an unamused look, "I would like you to go patrol the perimeter of campus and assist Port and Team CFVY in their expedition. If you see anything unusual, report back to me."

"Will do, Oz. That's what I am going to do anyway. I'll also check on the kids from time to time to see if they're recovering okay. Don't worry, I'll be discrete about it." Qrow waved his hand as he approached the elevator.

"Good. And please don't talk about what we discussed here with anyone other than Glynda." Ozpin said with the veteran Huntsman giving him a quiet nod.

"Mum's the word." Qrow made his last remark before he went into the elevator. When the doors close and the elevator left, Ozpin looked at the time on his watch. It was already past noon.

Blake was coming from the cafeteria, having finished her lunch, which, usually an exciting, talkative affair, was now quieter and more depressing than usual without Ruby and her energetic shenanigans to keep the conversation positive and engaging. Yang had been moodier and angrier as she was both worried about Ruby and angry of the creatures that were responsible for putting her sister in the hospital, cursing and swearing more ostensibly than a sailor. Weiss looked like a zombie as she had a haunted and distant look on her face and her personality has taken quite a 180 degree turnaround as she was now silent and the way she moved was almost like a robot. Blake, herself, was no better as she was emotionally exhausted and stressed out from the heavy visit. For once she tried to take reins of the leadership and was only partially successful in at least trying to talk about something productive. But it quickly turned to naught when it came to last night's travesty. No one wanted to talk about it.

Heck, in actuality, nobody even knew what they could talk about.

The girls were still trying to process the traumatic occurrence.

When she turned around to Team J(N)PR for help, she only saw Jaune and Pyrrha sitting side by side. Maybe together-together, though, not admittedly out loud. The two were also in an awkward mood to talk about anything really, but at least, Pyrrha, for her social aloofness, was doing her best to support an exhausted and troubled Jaune. Yesterday and this morning had been emotionally and mentally trying for the Arc.

Earlier, he and his teammates were fighting the other Dilophosaurs. All of the sudden, Nora got spewed and gassed by one of the bigger Dilo's Semblance, which shocked everyone in the vicinity. After that dinosaur died, Nora suddenly became ill and wracked with pain, spots suddenly appearing on her skin and she started vomitting. Her Aura was activated and it did protect her from the full effects of the attack, but the Dilo's Semblance vomit had still penetrated through when she unwittingly breathed in some of the stuff. Nora had to be put on the stretcher like Ruby was.

Her partnet, Lie Ren, who was usually calm and the most cool-headed and reasonable of Team J(N)PR, turned into a worriful mess. He was anxious and angsty when he, Jaune, and Pyrrha had to wait in the waiting room for the nurse's diagnosis on Nora's condition. No one who knew him had ever seen him act the way he did before when he paced around the room with his fists shaking. It took a while for Jaune and Pyrrha to convince him to even sit down because he looked like a madman with his hair disheveled, breathing erratic and his eyes darkened to a degree that unnerved even the Spartan.

The worst came when the nurse came into the waiting room with worse news. Nora was suffering from different maladies all at once. Not only was her nervous system paralyzed causing her problems with her breathing, but she was inflicted with smallpox, stomach flu, and aggressive form of cancer in on right lung. The room went deathly silent as the team became shellshocked of the horrific diagnosis. Whatever the Dilo did to Nora had overwhelmed her immune system with viruses found in the creature's gaseous vomit.

Then when Jaune asked Dr. Kiera if there is any way to save their hammer-wielding bomber, no words came from her mouth. Her response was the somber shaking of her head coupled with her words, "As of right now, there is not a lot we can do for Ms. Valkyrie."

Jaune was left speechless with his knees becoming wobbly to the point he fell to his knees with a huge knot in his stomach. Pyrrha teared up with her gloved hand covering her mouth with her heart sinking into the pits of despair. Lie Ren's reaction was the most haunting and painful of all. He didn't respond to anything. If anything, his mind had shut down with a distant, ghostly look to his eyes before he fainted.

As of right now, Lie Ren was lying unconscious in Team JNPR's bedroom while the nurses and doctors assigned to Nora in the infirmary debated on what to do with her in her current deteriorating condition. Jaune and Pyrrha headed out to the cafeteria to get away from the drama and to grab some grub as to calm down, but it was easier said than done. There were few students eating in the cafeteria and even fewer talking. Even Team CRDL was silent with their usual bullying, rowdy behavior more subdued than usual because of how everyone else was affected by the drama and the last thing they wanted was to be singled out and chewed out if they behaved like usual by almost every person in the Academy.

Blake secretly missed the energetic and loud atmosphere of the cafeteria because at least with Ruby and Nora around they make their groups' dynamics more interesting. And then Velvet was not around to talk to Faunus-to-Faunus. Seeing it as a lost cause to stay around any longer, Team WBY finished their lunches and left as soon as possible. Jaune and Pyrrha did the same a little later after an emotional long talk. Yang had left for the front office as she got a notification message from Glynda stating that her dad had come to visit her and Ruby. The blonde bombshell was not looking forward to telling her dad the traumatizing truth of what had happened to Ruby. Weiss, meanwhile, was going down to the library for solitude's sake with classes temporarily suspended, and she needed to sort out her emotions while stating in a somewhat delirious tone that she's going to get a smoothie from Beacon's Coffee Shop along the way to drown out her trauma. As for the Cat Faunus, she will be hopping onto the Bullhead into Vale to get away from the depressing and nervous atmosphere that has fallen upon Beacon. That was until her pair of hidden cat ears perked up at the sound of someone's frantic steps down the hallway towards her.

She turned around and her amber catlike eyes widened when she saw Neptune fast-walking to her. She noted that Sun Wukong was not with him like he usually was as the two were best friends and partners; stuck to each other by the hip, metaphorically, most of the time. And judging by the pained, and defeated look in his dark blue eyes and his handsomely-combed sea blue hair now disheveled with several hair strands sticking out, she figured something must be very wrong.

"Neptune?"

"Blake..." Neptune's voice sounded dejected to match with his awful look as he bent over to his knees, catching his breath.

"Neptune...where's Sun?" Blake asked him, fearing that Sun has run into trouble of some sorts with the White Fang.

"He's hospitalized and in critical condition." The playboy sounded even more dejected, which only made Blake's heart run faster than she's comfortable with as she was now fearing for the worst.

"What?! What happened?!" Blake couldn't believe her ears! It was already stressful having to bear through seeing Ruby Rose on the stretcher and placed into the infirmary with an oxygen tent over the younger Huntress's head while the doctors operated on her. Now she's has to hear that her newer friend...a fellow Faunus that she could relate to was now on a stretcher as well!

"H-h-he-h-he...I-I-I...uh...damnit!" Neptune was unable to say it as whatever happened to him and Sun was still so raw to him. "Blake...I think it's better you see it with your own eyes."

At that, Blake felt her heart heavier than a rock and the world around her suddenly plummeted in temperature.

Later on...

Blake and Neptune were in the Vale Asclepius Clinic and walking down the winding hallway. When they finally approached the emergency room, Blake had to stifle a horrified gasp when she saw the pitiful state he was in.

"Oh my gods!" Blake's eyes quivered as she tried to absorb the sight of Sun's right leg being chomped off at the knee along with having a good portion of his abs torn apart. His tail had been broken; bent in half. And his shoulder being partially eviscerated. The nurses were working on applying medical, healing ointment and stitches onto whatever wounds they could work on.

The blood and the exposed crimson flesh proved too much for her though after being overwhelmed with having to bear her team leader being bloodied and partially puffed up by the Dilo's venom. Her face became sickly green as she felt the urge to vomit her lunch contents out. She hurried to the nearest bathroom and throw up her lunch into the toilet. When she returned to the viewing glass outside of the room, Neptune had a sympathetic look on his face as he still suffer from the very same sick feeling of seeing the grievous damage inflicted upon his partner.

"Blake...I'm sorry, but Sun requested that you see him as he has talked about you quite a bit, how you were amazing back then when you kicked Torch-crack's butt and his goons all over. He wanted to see you one last time in case he's not making through this." Blake had a sad blush to that as she saw at the corner of her eye, she swore that Sun was weakly smiling, possibly genuinely happy to see her again. That only made Blake tear up, muttering, "Idiot."

"I guess that sounded too morbid. *sigh* Sorry about that," Neptune sighed regrettably. Blake seemingly said otherwise, "It's okay, Neptune. It's fine. Thanks for telling me." She didn't know what to feel as her emotions were now all over the place as it was almost like experiencing the trauma she had from losing her closest friends in the White Fang. Then she noticed something else that used to be with Neptune, but no longer.

"Hey, um, what happened to your Junior Detective badge?" When the Faunus asked him about that, his frown deepened as he explained.

"The temporary VPD unit we transferred to got disbanded." Neptune went straight to the point. "Our leading officer has been demoted and temporarily suspended from the Police Force."

Blake's ribbon drooped upon hearing that.

"Yeah...it sucked. And I mean it when I said it really sucked. And this was not the first time this has happened to her before." Neptune sat down onto the bench, drinking his water bottle.

"Does it have to do as to why Sun's now like that?"

Neptune breathed through his nose, "It's a very long story. All I can say is that we were supposed to find out why we're finding missing limbs and mangled up pets coming from the sewers. After that, I doubt you want to listen to something as traumatic as this because whatever it was we found down there shredded our detective unit."

"It doesn't matter. I've already been through a lot as it is with my team leader now just starting recovery in the infirmary."

"Wait...yours got hit, too?" Neptune's eyes widened in shock with Blake slowly nodding. "Damn..."

Blake softly as to not let anyone else hear them, "I can't give you much details, but Beacon had been infiltrated by mysterious lizards that attacked her last night. That's the gist of it at least."

"That sounds pretty much what we had to deal with too. In our case, it was some kind of giant alligator that looked to be like about 50-feet long. I-I'm not sure. The sewers were too dark and the water down there was really murky for me to see clearly what it was actually." Neptune remarked. "I thought it was an overgrown salamander."

"Was it a Grimm?" Blake asked as she had seen crocodilian Grimm before that had reached to monstrous sizes in Mistral's southern swamps.

"If it were, we would have seen the white bone plating and red eyes long ago, but this one was a non-Grimm animal."

"Excuse me?"

"It wasn't a Grimm, but I am not sure exactly sure what the hell that was because I don't recall either salamanders or crocodiles ever growing THAT big. I mean that would be impossible in such a cramped environment. Am I going loco or no?"

"I really don't know what to tell you, Neptune. Everything's gone insane so much so that I am tired just trying to stay sane." Blake rubbed her tired, wet eyes.

"Same here. Ugh, my mind is a mush like the sewage. Seriously, what the hell is going on with Vale?"

Blake looked at the largely drugged out Sun Wukong, worried for what lies in store for him, herself, and everyone she has come to love.

A Month later into October...

A sturdy built raft made out of the hardiest woods from the surrounding tropical forest in the southwestern part of Sanus was being pulled over a calm stream. A man, who was too nicely dressed in a dark tan formal jacket and striped shirt with a red tie to be appropriate for the hot, humid tropics, had a balding head with his hair parted largely to the sides with his forehead exposed. He was standing on the raft that was carrying forward while holding a suitcase in his hand. The lawyer representing InGen's investors, Donald Gennaro, was being slowly, but surely transported to the shallow riverbank, being pulled by one strong dark-skinned Faunus that had a rhinoceros horn on his nose. His peers watched in curious amusement of Gennaro who was comically out of place in this jungle environment.

Sitting on top of the embankment behind the men was a lightly tanned man of Caucasian Spanish descent dressed in more suitable explorer clothing. He was playing with his brown beige fedora, waiting for Gennaro.

The man spoke something in a Hispanic dialect of Vacuoan that Gennaro thankfully doesn't hear. Speaking of which, the lawyer was finally close to the riverbank where he reached out his hand to the man. Gennaro spoke to the man in perfect Hispanic dialect as did the man, Juanito Rostagno, saying back to him in friendly greeting. Juanito helped Gennaro steady his footing onto a wooden plank.

As soon as that happened, the lawyer's tone changed in seconds from friendly to somewhat outraged when he said, "What's this I hear at the airport? Hammond's not even here?!"

Juanito shook his head at Gennaro's change of tone, "He sends his apologies." Not even glancing at him.

"We are facing a twenty million dollar lawsuit by the family of that worker and more from Hunters suffering from closely related incidents that are alleged to be connected to the company! He can't even bother to see me?" Asked an incredulous Gennaro as both he and Juanito walked towards the Mano De Dios mine where amber excavation was currently underway.

"He had to leave early. He wants to be with his daughter, she's getting a divorce." The Hispanic excavator told him the half-truth.

"Well, I understand that, but we've been advised to deal with the tightening legal walls surrounding us now! The insurance company-!" Donald slipped on a rock, but Juanito caught him before the lawyer could fall face first into the rocky ground. Inwardly, Juanito smiled to himself as he had won the 10 dollar bet that Gennaro would trip himself up soon, but did a good job of not showing it. He patted Gennaro on the back.

"The underwriters feel that the accident has raised some very serious safety questions about the park. That makes the investors very, very anxious on top of the Huntsman accidents and complaints we've received from the Huntsmen Academies like Beacon, Shade, and Haven. I had promised to conduct a very thorough on-site inspection." Gennaro mentioned, which made the excavator annoyed when he turned around to face him.

"Hammond hates inspections. They slow everything down." Juanito remarked with barely restrained annoyance that he shared with his forementioned boss about inspections.

"Juanito, they'll pull the funding. That will slow him down even more!" Gennaro insisted.

Their conversation was interrupted by a junior excavator, who looked like he had hit gold when he informed Juanito of something. Juanito responded back with a surprised remark. The younger man led both Juanito and Gennaro into the mine.

Gennaro clumsily bumped his head against the wooden railing since visibility was reduced with dust and humidity fogging up the interior of the mine. "OOH! GAHK!"

"Watch your head," Juanito warned him as he has an easier time navigating through the cramped and rocky nature of the mine with other excavators and diggers hard at work, digging up amber.

"If two experts and certified Huntsmen sign up on the island, the insurance guys will back off. I've already got Ian Malcolm, but they think he's too trendy. They want Alan Grant, and Headmasters Ozpin and Ironwood." Gennaro stated.

"Grant? You will never get him out of Dakota Province. And you will have your hands full trying to talk to the Council to get those old fools out of their ivory towers." Juanito chuckled as one of the excavators manning the ironing machine meant to smoothen the edges of a circular amber gave it to him. He was mesmerized by it as he inspected it thoroughly, "Ah...best points! Muchachos enchien de lus!"

"I get it about the latter, but why not Grant?" Gennaro asked confused as other diggers surround him and Juanito to get a good look of the amber in the latter's hand.

"Because Grant's like me. He's a digger." Juanito answered. Encased in the amber was a fossilized mosquito.

Elsewhere...

Humans and Faunus were brushing off dirt off a grey, almost rock-like, bone encased in the ground. More people were brushing off more bones. Another was scooping dirt out of the eye socket of a skull. There were at least seven people working on a nearly complete skeleton, trying to excavate it. The dig site was in the arid Black Hills of Dakota 200 miles away from Mountain Glenn.

A man with horns of a Texas Longhorn poking through his cowboy hat came up the hill towards the skeleton. "Dr. Grant, Dr. Sattler, we're ready to try again."

Alan Grant stood up, his messy brown hair hidden under a tan, wide-rimmed fedora. He wore a red flannel shirt rolled up to his elbows, while wearing khaki pants, and aviator glasses.

"I hate computers." He said to himself as he's rather old-fashioned and part of the older generation that's not easily adaptable to the newer technology.

A woman with short strawberry, blonde hair stood up next to him wearing a blue shirt rolled up to her elbows and tied around her midriff, and blue jeans. She also wore a differently styled tan hat and sunglasses. She looked at Grant with a grin and wrapped an orange bandana around his neck. Both of them were in their late twenties.

"The feeling's mutual," Ellie Sattler said with a chuckle. They put their arms around each other and walked down the hill.

At the bottom of the hill, a pair of young men put a black shotgun shell into a strange contraption with wheels. They locked it into place and stood on it. One of the men pulled the pin on the shell as it fired the shell into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust in the process. The crowd gathered around a tent where a digital computer station was set up with seismic sensory equipment derived from Atlas' military devices used to detect seismic vibrations coming from underground Grimm. Grant and Ellie were at the front, looking at the screen.

"How long does this usually take?" Ellie asked the Longhorn Bull Faunus operating the laptop that was connected to the seismic radar equipment.

"It should bring an immediate return." the Faunus said as he typed on the laptop's keyboard and turned on the larger overhead screen placed on a metal stand above him. "Shoot the radar into the ground, and the bone should bounce the image right about..." He started typing and as he did the image started out blurry on the software program, but it eventually became sharper and clearer, showing an X-Ray version of the complete skeleton with faint impressions of feathers surrounding the arms, tail, and neck like what the paleontological team was digging up at the hill. "...now. This program is revolutionary. This could very well change how we conduct digging expeditions to the point we won't need pickaxes to do so."

"That'll certainly be a lot of fun," Grant said in a sarcastic manner, making Ellie laugh.

"It's a little distorted, but I think it's just the sensors briefly recalibrating." the young tech said.

"I don't think so either." Ellie said, pointing delicately at the computer, "Post-mortem contraction of the posterior neck ligaments. Dakotaraptor?"

Dakotaraptor was about 5.5 metres (18 ft) long, which makes it one of the largest dromaeosaurids known. It had long arms with one of the lower arm bones showing quill knobs, demonstrating that it was most likely feathered. It also had long rear legs with a very large sickle claw on the second toe; this claw could be used to kill relatively large plant-eating dinosaurs. It lived in the same time and area as many iconic late Cretaceous dinosaurs such as Ankylosaurus, Triceratops, and Tyrannosaurus.

This specimen in the region happened to be nearly complete compared to an earlier one that was missing without a skull and some individual bones in another area.

"Yeah. Good shape, too." Grant said, taking a closer look at the larger high-def TV screen and pointing at it. "It's five feet, ten inches high. Twenty feet long. Look at the extraord-," Jaune stopped as the TV screen frizzled out when he accidentally touched it.

"What did you do?" the tech asked as he worked to fix the image.

"He touched it. Dr. Grant's not techno-saavy." Ellie said with a laugh.

"Hell, they've got it in for me," Grant grumbled, "And look at the half-moon shaped bones in the wrists. Definitely a dromeosaurid trait, which is a precursor to bird wrists. I'm seeing feather impressions as well what looks like presence of barbs at the forearms. It's no wonder these guys learned how to glide through the trees if needed." The audience behind them chuckled humorously. "No, seriously." He said, turning to face them. "It is more likely that dinosaurs have more common ancestry with modern-day birds like hawks than say with modern reptiles unlike what you see in the movies. Look at the pubic bone, turned backwards, just like a bird. Look at the vertebrae; full of sacks and hollows, just like a bird. Even this fella has some preserved impressions of feathers, especially on the arms that are identical to those you'd find on a bird's wing. And even the word 'raptor' means bird of prey."

"That doesn't look very intimidating." Said a voice from behind him. Everyone turned to see a short, cubby boy in a t-shirt, shorts, and a ball cap speaking, "Looks more like a six-foot tall turkey." This elicited more laughing from the crowd.

"A turkey, huh?" Grant said, putting his hands onto his hip, giving the kid his full attention.

"Oh, no." Ellie groaned, "Here we go."

"You may have a good point, but I beg to differ. If you really put the bones, flesh, skin and feathers together onto the skeleton, I'd imagine the animal would look more like a grounded, flightless hawk. Try to imagine yourself in the forests of the late Cretaceous of what is now Dakota Province. You see this six-foot tall ground hawk prowling around as you enter the clearing. He stands as tall as a Beowolf, but moves like a bird, with his head making sharp, twitching turns like an eagle. And you put on something to hide your smell while remaining unseen in the shadows from a predator like T. rex, whose sensory acuity is based on smell. He'll lose you if he doesn't catch your scent. But not so with Dakotaraptor. You stare at him, he stares right back at ya with eyesight superior to that of an eagle's. He can clearly see your Aura and that's where the attack comes in, not from the front, but from the sides." Alan made a whistle as brought a finger from each hand, converging them in front of the kid. "From the other two raptors you weren't even aware they were there lying in wait. Dakotaraptors are pack hunters, you see. Like Beowolves of today, they use coordinating tactical patterns to disorientate and systematically bleed their prey to death." He circled around the back of the kid, brining out something from his back pocket. "And he slashes you with this." He showed it to the kid, a long, curved fossil claw that he held in one hand between his middle and index fingers. "A six-inch, retractable claw, like a razor on the middle toe. He doesn't go for a quick, swift bite to the jugular like a lion you see. No, far from it. He slashes you at you here." He cut across the boy's chest with the claw, "Or here." He cut along one of his thighs. "Or maybe across the belly, spilling your guts. The point is, you are alive when they start to eat you. So now you know, treat them with more respect?"

"Okay." the kid wondered back to his group. Alan started going back up the hill to the main dig with a small smile on his face. Elie Sattler soon caught up with him.